OK I will tell you about what happened over my Christmas break… in pictures…

December 20th Me in the morning with my brother-in-law, Alex, and niece, Silver

Me in the morning with Mo and Silver

Me still in the morning, but with make-up on

About 45 minutes later in my mother’s livingroom, Brian and I were saying our vows witnessed by my sister, Sari, and Alex

And about 5 minutes after that, we were married

After that we performed San San Kudo. This is what I wrote about it:
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SAN SAN KUDO
San San Kudo is a Japanese marriage ceremony originating in Shinto wedding services, but is now performed at weddings of all types in countries across Asia and the world.

Similar to sharing a peace pipe in Native American culture to sanctify the peace and bonding between two previously warring tribes, San San Kudo is part of a long history of rituals performed in cultures around the world in which food or drink is taken in a formalized way in order to provide luck or to bind people together in friendship or peace.

SAN = THREE
The theory behind San San Kudo is that three is ‘ the magic number’ because it cannot be divided in two. It takes three people to make a family, three legs to make a table stand, three sides to provide the strength of the triangle. No more, no less.

KUDO = NINE
Three 3s, therefore, is particularly auspicious. The number nine, in Japanese ‘kudo’, is the ‘lucky number’ in the same way that seven is deemed to be lucky here.

CEREMONY OF THREES
There are three cups
Sake will be poured three times into each cup
Sake will be sipped three times from each cup
There are three people performing the ceremony for Brian and Gia. In the Shinto tradition, the priest would have two helpers called ‘Miko’.
When Brian and Gia have drunk from all three cups, according to Shinto tradition, they are bound together in marriage, protected by the ceremony of threes.
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After a few days of Mo and Silver watching Schoolhouse Rock specifically Three is a Magic Number, I put in the ‘no more, no less’ reference to amuse Sari and Alex…

Last night Brian and I watched ‘The Office’ Christmas Specials Brian’s mum had taped for us while we were away and when Dawn came back to the party and kissed Tim we *both* started crying… we were both laughed that we had cried at ‘The Office’ more than we had at our own wedding. Awwwww….